How to Make Your Own Ringtones for Free

If you hate paying your phone company for ringtones, don't want to subscribe to a monthly ringtone service or just want to use songs or other audio clippings instead of what's commonly available, then you will want to start making ringtones on your own. It's also a great solution if you happen to be with a phone service for which there just aren't that many cool tones available.

There's several different ways that you can make your own ringtones for free, so I'm just going to discuss my preferred free software for doing it.

To start, download a free copy of Mediacoder and install that on your computer. Just follow the instructions on the Sourceforge website for installation.

Once the program is ready, you can then start by adding MP3 files to your list. Just click on the Add tab which you can find at the top left portion of the application. Browse through your directories to choose the MP3 file you want to add, then click Enter to add the file to the list.

Clicking Select on the bottom portion of the application will play the MP3 file. When the file is already playing, you will then see two buttons, labeled Mark In and Mark Out. 

These buttons let you mark the portions where you want your ringtone to begin and end. Using a whole song just won't work, so most people make their ringtones about 30 seconds long.

So just mark where you want the ringtone to begin and end, and then click the Start tab on Mediacoder. The Start button can be found at the main screen of the application. This will save your ringtone to the same folder or directory where the original MP3 file is located. 

Now comes the tricky part -- getting your new ringtone onto your phone. For some phones it is easy. You can just use Bluetooth to transfer the ringtone from your computer to your phone, or you can copy it to a media card and transfer it to your phone that way.

If neither bluetooth or media cards are an option for use with your phone though, you can upload your ringtone for free and have it sent to your phone. Try uploading it to Phone Uploader. The url indicates it is a Sprint tool, but it has been updated to work for most networks.

There is an online form that you have to fill out first, and then you can proceed to uploading the ringtone. Once this is done, you will then be given what is known as a jump code, which will allow you to download that same ringtone right to your phone.

You should get notification by text shortly after the upload and that will contain the address where you can download the ringtone you just created.